Many students did not address the issue of sustainability in this final, focusing instead of redesigning the lunch experience without constraints. My hunch is that this error reflected a failure of my own. Throughout this unit, students have focused primarily on redesigning classroom culture based entirely on identified needs. Yet, for this final I introduce a sustainability as a design constraint. The Marshmallow Challenge was students' first experience with the engineering design process and had a similar structure. However, this constraint was easily grasped. Sustainability is not as intuitive as building the highest tower. As I iterate on my own lessons for this unit I am identifying lessons where I can introduce sustainability early and develop it as a major course theme. Instead of fairy tales, for instance, perhaps I can use a sustainability story (Rachel Carson's writing?) and build lesson around developing a classroom culture of sustainability.

Sustainability "prebrief"

Adjustments to Practice: Sustainability "prebrief"

School cafeteria redesign (SUMMATIVE ASSESSMENT)

School cafeteria redesign (SUMMATIVE ASSESSMENT)

Unit 1: "Unit 0": Engineering design thinking
Lesson 12 of 12

Objective: This is a performance-based summative assessment lasting for two class periods that includes all major objectives for the unit. It assesses students' proficiency for each of the following: 1) understanding a partner's needs; 2) conducting an empathy interview; 3) developing a ¨how might we?¨ question for a partner's needs; 4) developing rapid prototype solutions; 5) building a rapid prototype of an idea; 6) testing the prototype against user needs; 7) iterating on the prototype design; 8) self-assessing mastery of engineering design thinking skills; and 9) reflecting on the engineering design process.

Big Idea:
Students must practice all aspects of the engineering design process in real time for a teacher to assess mastery. How might we assess students' mastery of engineering design thinking through a real-world design?

The model for this assessment is a core activity of the Stanford d school. My purpose is to assess students' proficiency with engineering design thinking. Because this is a process that produces products, I chose to create this assessment as an actual design challenge. As such, my assessments of students will focus both on artifacts (writing, prototype creation) and behavioral observations.

One move I made in creating this exam was to first survey students about something they would change in school. While there was no clear majority, more students identified the cafeteria/lunch experience more than any other part of the school. I probed students through an Edmodo discussion to understand their needs as best I could. Some student responses are in the attached screenshot. My final decision to focus on a sustainable cafeteria experience was made to bridge the engineering design thinking skills we have developed in this course with the content focus of upcoming units.

Resources (1)

Resources

This is the first of a two class period final. Students will engage in a real-time engineering design process. The warm-up activity will be for students to draw a sustainable cafeteria. They will use the follow description to aid their effort:

According to the United States Environmental Protection Agency, “Sustainability is based on a simple principle: Everything that we need for our survival and well-being depends, either directly or indirectly, on our natural environment. Sustainability creates and maintains the conditions under which humans and nature can exist in productive harmony, that permit fulfilling the social, economic and other requirements of present and future generations. Sustainability is important to making sure that we have and will continue to have the water, materials, and resources to protect human health and our environment.” (source: http://www.epa.gov/sustainability/basicinfo.htm. Accessed on 3 October 2012)

I will display the attached image at the front of the room as a visual reminder for students of the purpose of this opening activity.

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Resources

I will facilitate a discussion of the opening activity with the class. My goal is to determine our feelings about a sustainable cafeteria experience. I will end with a question: What step of the engineering design process did I just perform?

I will explain that my attempts to empathize are exactly what we will be doing for the next two days. To summarize our course so far, I review with students all that we have learned so far about the stages of the engineering design process. I will then describe the sustainable cafeteria design challenge. How might we create a sustainable cafeteria experience for our design partner? I will assign student pairs in advance, and project pairings. I will use my observations of classroom dynamics and knowledge of classroom relationships to pair students that do not regularly interact, but will have a functional classroom relationship.

ASSESSMENT

This activity will happen over two days. On the first day, I will guide students through the completion of the following tasks:

Interview

Dig deeper

Capture findings

Define problem statement

Sketch at least five radical ways to meet your user's needs

I will assess students with the attached rubric.

NOTE: The goal of this first day is to identify a prototype solution for a more sustainable cafeteria experience. Some students may choose to focus on a solution that is not easy to develop as a physical prototype. I will end the first day by telling students that they will be building a prototype during day two of the assessment and that they are encouraged to assess their own ideas for how easy they would be to prototype.

TEACHER MOVES

Teachers interested in learning how to facilitate this process should explore this video from the Stanford d school that provides directions for a similar process.

NOTE: I do not play music during this process as students will either be distracted or will argue with whatever I choose.

Resources

Attached are a few of the written artifacts from this final. I want to stress again that these artifacts are one aspect of the assessment process. Observations of student behavior are equally as important. For this reason, I actively circulate and make observational assessments of student proficiency throughout the final.

Resources

For this second day, students build prototypes, test prototypes with intended users, iterate, and reflection on the process. Again timing is strict. For supplies, I gave student groups spaghetti, index cards, paper clips, rubber bands, paper bags, string, tape, and scissors.

To close this exam, students answer reflection questions and self-assess.

Attached are some representative samples of reflection questions. These are useful as both assessment data and teacher feedback. For instance, I noticed that many students still do not accurately connect design mindsets to process. This tells me immediately that I need to improve that part of my practice.

Also attached is the rubric that students use to self-assess each part of the exam. I will compare self-assessments with my own assessment to identify areas where there is disagreement. These areas become the focus of my feedback, as differences indicate that a student does not understand their level of proficiency.

The rubrics used for this unit are a work in progress. A promising lead for future iteration comes from the K12 lab. Currently, the engineering design thinking rubrics I use suffer from an abstraction bias. What exactly is, for instance, a "surprising new insight"? How might I better communicate expectations for that sort of description of proficiency within a mastery-based assessment structure?

Similar Lessons

Big Idea:
Engineering is often left out when teaching STEM classes. Students have seen how inquiry can be used to help explain phenomena that are backed by evidence. This challenge gives students the opportunity to incorporate their inquiry skills to solve a need.